“Earlier this month lawyers for Apple celebrated a small, but important victory in court,” Parmy Olson reports for Forbes.
“On Aug. 4 they filed a 44-page complaint with the Civil Chamber of the lower court of Dusseldorf, a wealthy city in western Germany,” Olson reports. “The document claimed Samsung had ripped-off the design of the iPad, infringing on its so-called Community Design right, or what you’d call a ‘design patent’ in the United States.”
Olson reports, “About five years ago, the obvious place for patent-holders to sue was a cluster of district court in some tiny, dusty towns in Eastern Texas. Now there’s also Dusseldorf, Germany, where judges are proving themselves quick, competent, and more often than not, erring on the side of the patent holder.”
Read more in the full article here.
Well-written article.
I learned quite a bit from this concise piece.
There is no place in Germany named Dusseldorf. There is a major city named Düsseldorf. The two little dots are not there for decoration.
How ’bout ‘Düßeldorf’?
Ya. Ya.
Die “Eszett” is nicht für dekoration!
I think you meant to type ‘Ja. Ja.’
‘Ya’ is what passes for ‘yeah’ these days.
Ya.
Is there a Hitler’s bunker, I mean, Microsoft store in Dusseldorf?
English alphabet does NOT use the “two little dots” (known in German as umlaut, or in English as trema). To properly transliterate Düsseldorf, it should have probably been spelt Duesseldorf. However, in English, Dusseldorf is the common (and proper) spelling (like Vienna for Wien, Warsaw for Warszawa, Belgrade for Beograd, Bucharest for Bucureşti, Venice for Venezia, etc.)
Actually the patent troll lawyer spelling of Dusseldorf is T E X A S.
just my $0.02
Oh yeah!! You forgot Brazil for Brasil even though letter ‘s’ is used in the [American] English alphabet. Right!??
Wait, something’s not right. Uh.
I recall an incident in a bar. An American was talking to a German in German. Even though there is a huge difference in the pronunciation, he said schwul when he meant schwül. He wanted to say that it was stuffy and suggest that they go somewhere else to continue the conversation, but what he actually said was a rather abrupt pickup line. The German, who was not gay, nearly punched him in the face until someone quickly reminded him that Americans have difficulty seeing the need to pronounce things correctly.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but since we’re already discussing it, as a non-American, I can confidently say that Americans most certainly don’t have a patent on the mis-pronunciation thing. Many have equal issues in pronouncing English, with its weird sounds… Anyone who has ever heard the French (struggling with the initlal ‘H’ in hotel, have, hungry), Japanese (struggling to see the need to differentiate ‘L’ and ‘R’), East Europeans (such as myself; struggling to figure out how to say the ‘TH’ sound without spitting on the other person) can attest that mispronouncing the german ‘Ü’ is not as offensive as one might think.
Your comments are quite interesting and instructive. Thank you for your insight. I cannot say the same for ken.
Not to mention that the anecdote sounds extremely unlikely. Everyone who had ever met a foreigner trying to speak another language can certainly say that we instinctively always give them a lot of latitude with their language. In other words, when someone says something to you that doesn’t sound quite right (or is offensive), with a thick foreign accent, and meanwhile their demeanor tells you something completely different, you are always going to ask for a clarification, rather then (nearly) punch them in the face.
The anecdote is likely no more than a teaching device used by German teachers for showing the importance of proper pronunciation of umlaut.
And back on the subject, it’s nice to know that Germans now have their own District of East Texas, where patent trolls can swiftly make lucrative licensing deals with innovative companies. This time around, it was Apple protecting their property, but there is no doubt in my mind, there will be much more patent trolling no-name companies squeezing the big, creative, innovative players for money on some obscure, never-used, decades old ideas that someone somewhere patented and these no-name bottom dwellers picked up on the cheap.
Besides, as with the French, Germans all speak English behind our backs.
“tiny, dusty towns in Eastern Texas”
Eastern Texas is the green and leafy part of the state.
It’s the average mindset there that’s tiny and dusty.
I believe when the author said dusty, she meant that not much is happening there, so it’s collecting dust…